Electrical assemblies, such as insulators and surge arresters, are typically enclosed within a weathershed housing for insulating and protecting the internal electrical components or core members from the outside environment. Insulators are extensively used to support the electrical conductors of electric power lines. Surge arresters, on the other hand, are commonly connected across electrical equipment to shunt over-voltage surges, such as lightning strikes. As the voltage of power lines increases, the length of the insulator or surge arrester must also be increased. Accordingly, insulators and surge arresters vary in length depending upon their application. In fact, insulators and arresters can be very long.
Several methods and devices have been developed for manufacturing and connecting sections of weathershed housings to accommodate various lengths of insulators and surge arresters. However, these prior methods and devices have several disadvantages. For example, one piece weathershed housings require custom molding to obtain the particular length needed. Moreover, if there is a defect in the one piece weathershed housing, then the entire length of the weathershed housing must be discarded. Also, one piece weathershed housings are very expensive and time consuming to manufacture. Accordingly, electrical assemblies have been developed which utilize a plurality of sections of weathershed housings, instead of one piece. These prior electrical assemblies are typically either difficult to interconnect or do not provide a sufficient seal between adjacent sections of weathershed housings.
Examples of these prior electrical assemblies are disclosed in the following U.S. Pat. No. 2,135,085 to Ludwig et al; U.S. Pat. No. 2,586,285 to Ackermann; U.S. Pat. No. 2,593,955 to Ackermann; U.S. Pat. No. 3,328,631 to Greber; U.S. Pat. No. 3,793,475 to Yonkers; U.S. Pat. No. 3,898,372 to Kalb; U.S. Pat. No. 4,212,696 to Lusk et al; U.S. Pat. No. 4,373,113 to Winkler et al; and U.S. Pat. No. 4,427,843 to Ishihara et al.
In view of the above, it is apparent that there exists a need to provide electrical assemblies with a weathershed housing made of a plurality of sections that are coupled and sealed together in a weathertight manner. This invention addresses this need in the art along with other needs which will become apparent to those skilled in the art once given this disclosure.